Which kind of science is construction management?

Koskela, LJ

Abstract

It is argued that the mainstream views on the nature of construction management are insufficient, and as one consequence of this, the relevance of construction
management has been questioned. As a solution to this situation, construction management is suggested to be repositioned as a design science, rather than as an
explanatory science. A historical consideration reveals that design science equals to one of the sciences proposed by Aristotle, however, the suggestion of Aristotle has
been forgotten. Thus, there has been a long-standing neglect of the design science, which explains the present fragmentation of this field. It is argued that this
redefinition of construction management will solve several problems plaguing this discipline, including the problem of relevance.

Citation

Koskela, L. Which kind of science is construction management?. Presented at 16th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, Manchester, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: 16th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction
• Conference Location: Manchester, UK
• End Date: Jul 18, 2008
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2008
• Deposit Date: Jun 11, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Keywords: construction management, natural science, social science, science of production, design science, constructive research
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